Trousers are a four piece rock band from New York City. The Trousers saga began in the summer of 2002 when George Loew (drums) contacted Joseph O’Leary on an internet musician’s forum. They played with a number of musicians but it was not until they met Becca Owen (cello) that a lineup began to emerge. In March 2003 they stumbled upon the licentious thundercloud that is Joey Amdahl (guitar); he signed on. When Becca came to practice one day speaking of a dream in which she met a geeky dinosaur on crutches named Trousers, they knew their name.
From the start: George’s terse, driving, elegantly skittish drums clapping along with Joseph’s urgent, black-eye bass to form a rhythm section that is daring and presumptuous yet comfortable. Becca, squeezing her cello like hands work dirt, leaving eyes and ears to catch their breath. And the atmospheric and confrontational theatrics of Joey pick their spots, always somehow exactly what you wanted to hear right then. Add Joseph’s brown-paper-bag voice and evocative lyrics, and you have that great band that you saw that night that you went to your friend’s show, not expecting to enjoy any of it, yet walking away singing the choruses of that other band: Trousers.
Trousers have rocked the CBGB’s Lounge, Sin-e, the Continental, the Charleston, and many NYC hotspots. They came a power outage and twenty minutes away from rocking the House Of Good Names. They recorded their first and only full length, We Pitched a Hut and Called it Providence, in the summer of 2004. They broke up in August 2004.
For songs representative of their sound, check out tracks
1 (When I Go), 3 (Leftovers), and 10 (Becca’s Song).